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Pygmalion

Pygmalion. Act II & Act III (Part I): Eliza’s Education – Purposes and Manners. Your Works * Give names of reporters. Upcoming!!! 1) 11/7 Script due (at EngSite) – with an explanation of your theme, what you’ve cut and/or changed

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Pygmalion

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  1. Pygmalion Act II & Act III (Part I): Eliza’s Education – Purposes and Manners

  2. Your Works * Give names of reporters Upcoming!!! 1) 11/7 Script due (at EngSite) – with an explanation of your theme, what you’ve cut and/or changed 2) Costumes—get costumes by 11/19; estimate expenses, too. Each group no more than 2000 dollars. 3) 11/19 – (sound lighting) meeting?

  3. Act II: Eliza’s “Education” Education 0. Education (1): Higgins as a Scientist Education (2): Purposes-- Who Wants it, why and how? The Views of Eliza’s Education Education (3): Mr. Doolittle as a foil, who does not want improvement Education (4): Comedy of Manners Pronunciation, Rhetoric and Comic Elements Act III: Characters and Manners

  4. Class Discussion Questions --Act II On Act II & III; Post your group responses before class Group C Stage Direction (Act II)  What does the stage description on pp. 26-26 reveal more about Higgins? Do you find him a likeable person? Can you recreate the scene in class (on your ppt)? Group D Theme: Eliza’s Education – What do Mrs. Pearce’s & Pickering’s cautions against Higgins say about themselves and about Higgins? Which do you agree with more?

  5. 1. Stage Directions Characters: Higgins vs. the Others What does the stage description on pp. 26-27 reveal more about Higgins?  

  6. Setting – Higgin’s (1) class difference • a fireplace, leather-covered easy-chair at the side of the hearth nearest the door, and a coal-scuttle; a clock on the mantelpiece; a stand for newspapers. • a telephone and the telephone directory. a grand piano, • On the piano is a dessert dish heaped with fruit and sweets, mostly chocolates. • Eliza – ostrich feathers in orange, sky-blue, and red

  7. Setting (1184-85) – (2) a scientist’s room • two tall file cabinets • on the writing table – a phonograph, a laryngoscope喉鏡, a row of tiny organ pipes with a bellows風箱, a set of lamp chimneys煤油燈用的玻璃燈罩 for singing flames with burners attached to a gas plug in the wall by an india rubber tube, several tuning-forks of different sizes, • a life-size image of half a human head, showing in section the vocal organs, • a box containing a supply of wax cylinders for the phonograph. • On the walls, engravings; mostly Piranesi’s and mezzotint (鏤刻銅版) portraits. No paintings. (a contrast to Mrs. Higgins’)

  8. Art works in Higgins’ Living Room Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Etching (source: Wikipedia) mezzotint (鏤刻銅版) portrait Lack of colors and warm human concern

  9. Stage Direction  Higgins • Well-off, a lot of furniture, etchings but not paintings • Scientific: a lot of machines in his drawing room. • GBS’s bias for Higgins? • “a robust, vital, appetizing sort of man of forty or thereabouts” • “a professional-looking black frock-coat” • “heartily, even violently interestedin everything that can be studied as a scientific subject” • “careless about himself and other people, including their feelings. • Childish: described as “babylike” twice; sweets • like a very impetuous baby "taking notice" eagerly and loudly; [upon seeing Eliza] baby-like, making an intolerable grievance of it • “so entirely frank and void of malice that he remains likeable even in his least reasonable moments.

  10. 2. Characters in a Tug of War (1): Higgins vs. the Other 3 Characters i. What does Eliza want to achieve?  And how about Higgins? 

  11. Discussion as a tug of war (pp. 27-37)= H active & winning

  12. Battle of willtug of war (1): MONEY, PASSION WITHOUT A PLAN

  13. Battle of willtug of war (1): INTERVENTIONS • 12. Intervention (3) (36)  future; clear explanation 13. Higgins clarifies the deal: 1) having your head cut off as penalty 2) 7 and 6 pence as award

  14. MORE DISCUSSIONS (40-43) Pickering Mrs. Pearce Watch your manners and language -- not swear -- personal cleanliness -- not in dressing gown, not use it as napkin, not eat everything from the same plate, • Are you a gentleman? Re: Higgins on women

  15. Eliza – to be a lady in a flower shop Theme (1): Education Theme (2): Scientific Ideal vs. Human Caution

  16. Pearce’s and Pickering’s Cautions

  17. Three Pygmalion’s (pp. 40-43) Act 3 p. 69 pronunciation and cultural taste p. 39. Clean and respectable lady

  18. Summary: Their Influences on Eliza • Higgins’ analysis + training + scolding • Mrs. Pearce – not just a housekeeper, but a mother figure in this house. • Higgins: “Here I am, a shy, diffident sort of man. I’ve never been able to feel really grown-up and tremendous, like other chaps.” (43) • Bathing and dressing her properly; • (1195-96) Asks Higgins to behave himself in language (not to swear), dressing, table manners(to wipe his hands on his dressing gown), etc, in front of Eliza. • Pickering: • Offers a spiritual support (54-55); like a buffer zone between the two. • Teaches her self-respect-- courteous, calls Eliza Ms. Doolittle (29; 36; 53)

  19. Class Discussion Questions --Act II Group E Mr. Doolittle (Act II): Language and Rhetoric –What are the rhetorical skills used by Mr. Doolittle? Why are his statements funny? Choose 2 of his ideas and 1 of Higgins and discuss how you agree and/or disagree with them. On Act II & III; Post your group responses before class

  20. Mr. Doolittle: Another Way of Life • Work + Fun:He drinks, does his job (as a navvy, unskilled laborer or digger, 工人) only once in a while, and tries to get money out of others. (53) So he is a disgrace to Eliza. • His Rhetoric • 1) emotional appeal and common moral reasoning • 2) practical appeal: straightforward in appealing to H as “a man of the world,” bargaining • 3) self-assertive claims: to take the line of being “undeserving” poor (48-50) • Not Greedy: He will ‘make good use of the 5 pounds, and does not want more. • “Just one good spree (狂歡) for myself and the missus, There won't be a penny of it left by Monday: I'll have to go to work same as if I'd never had it. It won't pauperize me…” • 10 pounds will make him “prudent like.”

  21. Doolittle’s Use of Rhetoric [Review of Bro. Koss’s Points]: ingratiating, negotiating, self-asserting, being honest, using parallelism & rhetoric questions • pp. 48-49 [being undeserving poor] I'm playing straight with you. I ain't pretending to be deserving. I'm undeserving; and I mean to go on being undeserving. I like it; and that's the truth. Will you take advantage of a man's nature to do him out of the price of his own daughter what he's brought up and fed and clothed by the sweat of his brow until she's growed big enough to be interesting to you two gentlemen? Is five pounds unreasonable? I put it to you; and I leave it to you. • HIGGINS [rising, and going over to Pickering] Pickering: if we were to take this man in hand for three months, he could choose between a seat in the Cabinet and a popular pulpit in Wales. • PICKERING: What do you say to that, Doolittle?

  22. Education (3): Morality vs. Mr. Doolittle Mr. Doolittle – a reversal of Victorian morality. His View about Marriage and Family: Does not want to protect his daughter; wants to get money out of her (money for drinking). Feel bound to his woman because they are unmarried Money: happy with 5 pounds His Rhetoric-- Higgins finds his argument irresistible (p.50). How about you?

  23. Act II: Pattern • Two Parts: two verbal encounter (or fights) showing Eliza vs. Higgins & Higgins vs. Doolittle; • Similarities: discussion with Higgins which is similar to a tug of war, • Intention: Both Eliza and Doolittle go there desiring something, but almost fail to get it. • Contradictions (in action or in words): Eliza wants both to leave and to stay; Doolittle is all talk. • Higgins: willful, getting what he wants and paying when he likes to. • Major Difference: Eliza wants education, while Doolittle wants only money.

  24. Pygmalion: “underserving poor” = more money means higher class and moral status? How about upper class? Eliza – accent = higher class; how about money & marriage? Class Mobility vs. Relative Opposition between Middle (+) and Lower Classes (-)

  25. Education (4): The Comical: The Play as a Comedy of Manners • The comical: Manners or lack of it shown to an absurd degree to reveal human foibles. • Lack of it: Eliza’s responses and her “Ah-ooo.” • Higgins’ exaggerated manners (42): his dialogue with Mrs. Pearce (“Only this morning, sir, you applied it [dirty word] to your boots, to the butter, and to the brown bread”); his treatment of Eliza. • The use rhetoric: e.g. • pp. 47-48 Mr. Doolittle’s: Governor. Well, what's a five pound note to you? And what's Eliza to me?

  26. Higgins’ “Proverbs” • Woman (41)--I find that the moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. I find that the moment I let myself make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical. Women upset everything. When you let them into your life, you find that the woman is driving at one thing and youre driving at another. • (re. Eliza’s education) Ambition in Life • (31) -- What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day. I shall make a duchess of this draggle-tailed guttersnipe.

  27. Higgins’ “Proverbs” • 36 -- …do any of us understand what we are doing? If we did, would we ever do it? • 42-- Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves is as true of personal habits as of money. (積少成多;集腋成裘,聚沙成塔;小事留意,大事順利) • 61-62 -- "we're all savages" speech. 

  28. Class Discussion Questions --Act III Group A: Stage Direction (Act III) What does it reveal about Mrs. Higgins. Again, try to recreate the setting. Group F (Act III) : How does Mrs. Higgins look at Higgins’ experiment differently from Higgins and Pickering? Group B: Education and Manners: What has she achieved in the first part of Act 3 (the at-home party), and where does she fall short? Any interesting plot reversals? (67; 68-70) How do they shed light on Victorian manners? On Act II & III; Post your group responses before class

  29. 1. Characters and Manners i. Mrs. Higgins vs. Higgins (Stage directions and Dialogue) (Group A)

  30. Instruments; file cabinet a life-size image of Human head with vocal cord; Portraits & engravings Morris wallpaper chintz (印花棉布) window curtains Mr. Higgins’ vs Mrs. Higgins’ Rooms Giovanni Battista Piranesi

  31. Mrs. Higgins’ Room: Painting and Nature • Burne Jones paintings • Cecil Lawson landscape painting, • three windows looking on the river; • A balcony with flowers in pots

  32. Mrs. Higgins’ Room: Well-Designed Furniture • Chippendale chair--chair made by or in the style of Thomas Chippendale (1718?-79), English cabinetmark and influenced to some extent by Louis XV. • Elizabethan (Indigo Jones) chair There is a Chippendale chair further back in the room between her and the window nearest her side. At the other side of the room, further forward, is an Elizabethan chair roughly carved in the taste of Inigo Jones.

  33. Mrs. Higgins • Wise and with more sense of style, or taste • brought up on Morris and Burne Jones; once rebellious • There is a portrait of Mrs. Higgins as she was when she defied fashion in her youth in one of the beautiful Rossettian costumes which, when caricatured by people who did not understand, led to the absurdities of popular estheticism in the eighteen-seventies.(Ref) • Cares about social occasion such as at-home tea party and its proper manners

  34. Mrs. Higgins’ blue and white Arts and Crafts garden Room Image source: http://www.rosso-ubarri.com/blog/

  35. Higgins about His Mother • Emotionally attached & obedient to his mother. (58) • His idea of a loveable woman: “something as like you as possible”; young women – all idiots • MRS. HIGGINS. Do you know what you would do if you really loved me, Henry?   • HIGGINS. Oh bother! What? Marry, I suppose? • MRS. HIGGINS. No. Stop fidgeting and take your hands out of your pockets. [With a gesture of despair, he obeys and sits down again]. That’s a good boy. Now tell me about the girl.

  36. Higgins: Manners • His rudeness: pp. 59-63 • to Mrs. Eynsford Hill; “I haven’t the ghost of a notion where; but I’ve heard your voice. [Drearily] It doesn’t matter. You’d better sit down.” (59) • To Pickering -- [over his shoulder] We were interrupted: damn it! (60) • To Freddie -- [looking at him much as if he were a pickpocket] –(61) • Curses & coarse movements (63) HIGGINS [suddenly] By George, yes: it all comes back to me! [They stare at him.] Covent Garden! [Lamentably]What a damned thing! MRS HIGGINS Henry, please! [He is about to sit on the edge of the table.]Don't sit on my writing-table: You'll break it. HIGGINS [sulkily] Sorry. [He goes to the divan, stumbling into the fender and over the fire-irons on his way; extricating himself with muttered imprecations; and finishing his disastrous journey by throwing himself so impatiently on the divan that he almost breaks it. Mrs. Higgins looks at him, but controls herself and says nothing.]

  37. Higgins: His Frankness • (61) – • What one really thinks--not decent ; • HIGGINS What they think they ought to think is bad enough, Lord knows; but what they really think would break up the whole show. Do you suppose it would be really agreeable if I were to come out now with what I really think? • MISS EYNSFORD HILL [gaily] Is it so very cynical? • HIGGINS. Cynical! Who the dickens said it was cynical? I mean it wouldn't be decent. • MRS EYNSFORD HILL [seriously] Oh! I'm sure you don't mean that, Mr. Higgins. • “We” not civilized; • We can be pretentious in small talks, while not really knowing the subjects (e.g. of poetry, science, medicine, etc.) we're all savages, more or less. We're supposed to be civilized and cultured—to know all about poetry and philosophy and art and science, and so on; but how many of us know even the meanings of these names?

  38. 1. Characters and Manners ii. Eliza’s Performances & The Eynsford Hill’s & Mrs. Higgins’ Responses (Group F & B)

  39. Eliza’s Performances • Higgins’ work:I've taught her to speak properly; and she has strict orders as to her behavior. She's to keep to two subjects: the weather and everybody's health(58) -- how she pronounces, but not what she pronounces • Mrs. Higgins’ comments (pp. 58-59) (outsides vs. insides) • Eliza: (62-65) • Weather: like weather forecast • Aunt – sb did her in --Higgins: new small talk • Father—chronically drunk; Wives getting their husbands drunk to make them “fit to live with.” [F] Ha! ha! how awfully funny! [Mrs. E puzzled] Done her in? Mrs. E How dreadful for you! [F] sniggering

  40. New Small Talk & Social Manners: Freddy, Mrs. Eynsford Hill & Clara(Stage Direction) Freddy: [shaking hands with Mrs. Higgins]Ahdedo? --forced and unnatural pronunciation Mrs. Eynsford Hill: The mother is well bred, quiet, and has the habitual anxiety of straitened means.(59) Clara: The daughter has acquired a gay air of being very much at home in society: the bravado of genteel poverty.

  41. Freddy, Mrs. Eynsford Hill & Clara: Their Responses to NST Freddy: infatuated, not comprehending. (63) Clara: needs to be on the marriage market  eager to please others and follow the trends • To her mother: [if you are not used to the small talk,] “People will think we never go anywhere or see anybody if you are so old-fashioned.” • ' Nobody means anything by it. It's so quaint, and gives such a smart emphasis to things that are not in themselves very witty. I find the new small talk delightful and quite innocent' (66) • Rejects “early Victorian prudery” (67) Mrs. Eynsford Hill: • not used to “[Clara’s] talking about men as rotters, and calling everything filthy and beastly” (65); • cannot take Eliza’s.

  42. Mrs. Higgins’ Responses • [Before the conversation] no way to separate the social small talk with the “insides” • “A problem” came in with her. (70) • not her father • But “what’s to be done with her afterwards” • HIGGINS …She can go her own way, with all the advantages I have given her. • MRS HIGGINS The advantages of that poor woman [Clara] +who was here just now! The manners and habits that disqualify a fine lady from earning her own living without giving her a fine lady's income! Is that what you mean?

  43. Every Group Pygmalion – Finalized Script A. Scene and Theme • What is the theme and main message of your work, as opposed to the original one? (They can be the same.) • Which scenes do you focus on in your text? What do you omit? Does this cutting affect your presentation of the theme? • How much dialogue? Among whom? Are you going to fill out the gaps in the original texts? B. Your Setting – location and main props --DRAWING C. Line Reading & Recording

  44. Let’s Take a Break 10: 30 – 10:45 Break 10:45 – 11:00 Group !

  45. 3. Review: Education & the Characters Eliza, Higgins, Pickering and Mrs. Pearce: What do they each want or care about? What are the three’s influences on Eliza?

  46. Higgins: 1) described as a baby twice 2) bad-tempered & impetuous, but likable (?) 3) Only scientific interest in humans (as accent 27); not interested in Eliza before 1) Eliza’s offer 2) Pickering’s bet. 4) Takes up the challenge (to turn a “draggletailed guttersnipe” [拖著又髒又濕的長裙的(邋遢)女子]流浪兒into a lady) without consideration of human feelings. Eliza: Wants to sell flowers in a flower shop Willing to spend 2/5 of her income to do so. Cannot fully comprehend all of what’s been discussed. (35) Refuses to be bullied; insists on her right. (37) repeatedly asserts herself with the limited language she has or learns on the spot (e.g. “good girl” “has feelings”). Higgins’ and Eliza’s Desires

  47. Eliza’s Education • From Rags to Riches-- The First Few Things she learns: • Material base: the advantage of bathing; wearing night gown; • Self-Image: the Mirror  needs to get used to it (? Self-image, vanity, sexual identity) • Self-Respect: being called “Miss Doolittle” (53) “it sounded so genteel.” • “something to shew”— (snobbery) • Take a taxi to put the girls in their place a bit. I wouldn’t speak to them, you know. • the fashionable (53) 5. Pronunciation: (54)

  48. Overview: Emerging General Issues • Class differences and social mobility • How are class differences marked?  And changed? • Money, dresses, boots, whistle sound, taxi. • Language & Accent  Place (Lisson Grove, Wimpole Street, Earlscourt, etc.); rooms • Jobs (flower girl, dustman) and activities (drinking, theatre-going, “at-home” day, parties) • Ways of survival and sense of Morality • a woman’s or lady’s positions: e.g. Eliza, Clara, Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Pearce and Mrs Eynsford Hill • Transformation & Class Mobility: Eliza, Mr. Doolittle, The Eynsford Hills. Appearance: manners Reality

  49. Overview: Emerging General Issues 4. The play as a comedy of manners 5. The play as a “romance” vs. gender relations • How does Shaw re-define romance? • Changes of Eliza’s relations with Higgins– • "that thing," "insect" "squashed cabbage leave" ”draggle-tailed guttersnipe”

  50. Plot Development • Acts III – V: a series of transformation and reversals

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